(1) Technical Field
The invention relates to the service purchasing systems wherein a customer has to pay a certain amount of money to access a controlled zone in order to get a specific service and in particular relates to a wireless service purchasing system.
(2) Related Art
Many services offered to customers are to be paid using coins to be inserted into a slot of a machine that generally delivers a ticket to the customer. Alternatively, in some cases a payment card such as a contactless card may be used instead of coins. This scheme wherein it is necessary to access a controlled zone to obtain the service can apply to public transportation, visiting a museum, input to a car park, using public toilets, etc.
The systems mentioned above are cumbersome insofar as they require the customer either to carry coins all the time or to manipulate a payment card. More important, they force the customer to wait in line before accessing the payment booth when several customers or users want to gain access to the service.
In some cases, the above drawbacks have been partially solved by using a wireless system known as a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) device. Thus, the document WO 02097568 describes a system wherein a number of readers are used for reading an identification number from a RFID transponder card owned by a subscriber wanting to enter a community of retailers. But, such a system is closed, requiring prior membership, and cannot be used by anybody.
In Japanese patent application JP 2002036997, an information providing system is capable of providing information particularized to a person. A mobile phone subscriber informs the information provider about an e-mail address or a mobile phone number to become a member. The information provider stores the e-mail address or the mobile phone number in a database and distributes an RFID for recording identification information to the mobile phone subscriber who attaches the RFID to the mobile phone. When the mobile phone subscriber acquires information, he brings the mobile phone close to an RFID reader so that it can read the RFID information and transmit it to the information provider. Unfortunately, the RFID device is only attached to the mobile phone. Therefore, it is not linked to the owner of the mobile phone and can be changed.